Business sector employment rises after three-month decline

MTI – Econews

Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 17:35

The number of employees in Hungary's business sector, which includes private and state-owned companies, rose 2.7% in the twelve months to March, and was also up 0.5% on the month after three months of decline, according to fresh data published by the Central Statistics Office (KSH).

The number of employees at businesses employing at least 5 people rose 48,900 in twelve months to 1,831,800 in March and was up 8,300 from the same month a year earlier.

In a month-on-month comparison, business sector employment rose in March after a 7,400 or 0.4% decline in February and a combined decline of 30,800 in December-February. The number of employees in the sector fell almost 200,000 from a 1,980,000 peak in May 2008 before employment rose first on the month in March 2010. The numbers rose steadily until July 2010, they were little changed until last November, and then declined for the next three months.

Business sector employment started to grow in a year-on-year comparison in May 2010 after declining steadily from December 2008 to April 2010, KSH data show. Employment in the sector averaged 1,827,000 for the full year in 2010, edging up 0.3% from 2009, when the economic crisis reduced the number by 6.7%.

The combined number of employees at businesses employing at least 5 people, in the public sector and at non-profit institutions totaled 2,662,500 in March, rising 0.8% or 21,700 from February 2011 and rising 17,900 or 0.7% in one year.

Most of the monthly rise in March came from the public sector where the number of employees rose 12,100 from February to 728,200 in March, but fell 33,300 in one year. Excluding fostered workers ─ those employed on public work schemes ─ the number of public sector employees fell 2,100 in a month and little changed in one year, KSH said.

Non-profit institutions employed 102,500 people in March, 1,300 more than a month earlier and up 2,300 from the same period last year.

Workplace inspections by labour authorities showed the rate of illegal employment reached 13.62% in January-September of last year, a report by the Finance Ministryʼs Department of Labor Affairs shows, according to state news wire MTI.

Output of Hungaryʼs construction sector climbed 27.3% year-on-year in November, according to raw data released by the Central Statistical Office (KSH) on Tuesday.
Output grew in both main groups of construction: in the construction of buildings by 17.8%, and in civil engineering works by 40.2%.

The surplus in the external trade in goods amounted to EUR 496 million in November 2018, with exports increasing by 4.7% and imports rising by 7.3% in the month in euro terms, compared to the same month of 2017, shows a first reading of data released by the Central Statistical Office (KSH) on Wednesday.

The volume of industrial output increased by 4% year-on-year in November 2018. Based on working-day adjusted data, production grew by 3.5%, according to freshly released data from the Central Statistical Agency (KSH).

The volume of retail sales grew by 5.3% in November 2018 according to raw data, and by 5.2% when adjusted for calendar effects, compared to November 2017, according to a flash estimate of monthly data published today by the Central Statistical Office (KSH).

Industrial producer prices in Hungary were up 5.1% in November 2018 compared to the same month in 2017, as prices were affected by wage growth, forint exchange rate fluctuation and petroleum market price changes on the world market, according to the Central Statistical Office (KSH).

The deficit of the general government sector in the first three quarters of 2018 was HUF 110 billion, representing 0.4% of GDP. The balance improved by HUF 54.4 bln, or 0.2 of a percentage point as a proportion of GDP, compared to the corresponding period of 2017.

Hungaryʼs rolling average three-month jobless rate reached 3.6% in September-November 2018, edging down from 3.7% in the previous three-month period, and 3.8% in the corresponding period a year earlier, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Wednesday.

Foreign-owned non-financial companies posted a total of HUF 47 trillion in sales revenues in Hungary in 2017, some 6.9% more in current prices than in 2016, according to research findings based on preliminary data released by the Central Statistical Office (KSH).